Shingeki No Kyojin / Attack on Titan Season 3 : Pain

I’m really excited to learn more about Levi so this season is one that I’m really looking forward too and the first episode really did a lot better at making me excited for the season then the other two seasons managed to do.

The opening sequence with Levi and Kenny was absolutely amazing to watch, so wonderfully animated and had me on the edge of my seat. AoT does tend to have some really wonderfully animated moments that I’ve overlooked a lot in the reviews because I wanted to rant about my distaste for the characters but with the focus on Levi I was able to really enjoy this episode so much more and boy is it one of the most beautifully animated episodes I’ve ever watched.

It pretty much got straight to the point after that with Levi and Hange torturing the truth out of people till they found out that the Reiss family, the family that Historia is a bastard child of, is the true royal family making her the true successor to the throne.

Within all that was a tale of morality with Armin classifying them all as criminals with the naivete of youth. He joined the scouts to kill Titans, creatures that kill for no reason and have no other point in life but to destroy, he didn’t sign up to kill humans who he believes only differ from the Scouts because of their beliefs or the beliefs of their group.

This all comes about after he has to kill one of Kenny’s group to save Jean.

Whilst the fight scene was impressive, the torture was grim to watch and it set up for the next episode and the story as a whole nicely, very obviously the whole question of whether or not the Scouts are Just in what they do and the question of morality in general was very nicely done.

I kind of side with Levi on it.

He didn’t try to make out that someone would be in the right or wrong of the situation he just pointed out that what Armin did was to save Jean’s life and because of him killing another human they were able to save Jean and get out of there alive.

Now of course it goes further then that. Armin is then present and fully aware of what Levi and Hange are doing, the whole group is which makes them part of the torture even if they aren’t even in the room.

The thing is Armin is looking at the world in black and white.

Black being evil people who torture and kill others whilst the white being the good guys who do what is right.

Its a very naive way of looking at the world as you learn from just listening to what the guy has to say when he’s being tortured. He did everything he did for what he believed was the betterment of the world around him, what Levi and Hange are doing is to save Eren and also for the betterment of the world around them in their own eyes.

The world they live in isn’t one that a black and white view point can be applied too.

Armin is happy to kill Titans not knowing what motivates them and whilst fully aware that humans CAN turn into Titans. He see’s them as monsters when in actuality there could be a lot more behind them. He still saw himself on the white side of the world because he equated human life above all other life and Titans as being unworthy of being classified as human even if their bodies resemble human bodies and he more then anyone knows that humans can become Titans.

What he isn’t happy with is killing someone to save another life just because the other person hesitated first, he isn’t happy with torturing people to find information when in this world it seems like that has been the key in him living his life the way he has done so far just he never knew of it.

Does one act of “evil” make the entire group criminals when this group they are taking out have been doing evil things all along?

I think its more a survival thing. Armin needs to get over the fact that he equates evil doings to only being able to be done to humans. This whole thing is going to give that group a much wider look on life in general as they have to open their eyes up to a political world as well as just the true nature of a bunch of different humans. They can no longer look at the world as Titans = evil but at how to self preserve.

In the eyes of the law I guess they were seen as the enemy as soon as the law turned their backs on the Scouts and demanded Historia and Eren. Armin hasn’t seen that yet, he doesn’t realise that those people, whether they hesitate or not were out to kill anyone who got in their way and as far as the law is concerned they were criminals before Armin killed someone and Levi and Hange started torturing people. By the end of the episode he knows the people trying to kill them, kidnapping their friends and just being downright ass holes are in fact the people in charge of the country.